The NEW Game of Business Blog

We had two difference making “Gamestorming™” sessions with a psychotherapist and a corporate consultant/rainmaker. If you run a small business you can apply what we gamestormed to pinpoint your market, elevate your standing and attract more “hungry fish.”

Are you capitalizing the value of the Three “R’s”:
Resources, Relationships and Results?

Special guest is my long time friend Paul Hartunian,
the man who literally sold the Brooklyn Bridge and
millions of dollars of other products and services.

Paul has appeared in the media hundreds of times and
is the author of the gold standard for getting publicity,
“The Million Dollar Publicity Kit.”

Paul is successful in more than business. He is a generous
and quietly philanthropic difference maker. He’s also one
of the most practical and action oriented guys I know.
When it comes to real world value, few people give more
meat (or healthy morsels) per minute than Paul (a vegetarian).

Paul and I will reveal how we changed our games over
the years, and why “adapt-ability” is one of your most
important assets. We’ll talk new thinking, a new game
plan, new plays and what’s working now. I’ll ask him to
share how he created a fabulous life, livelihood and living.

It’s been more than 10 years since Paul and I sat down
one on one. We throw the rule book and the box away.
You don’t want to miss this conversation.

“In ancient Rome, when Cicero gave an oration, they said
‘What a good speaker he is.’ But when Demosthenes spoke,
they rose as one and said ‘LET US MARCH!’” — Adlai Stevenson

What do the people you serve say about you?

Do they politely applaud and whisper, “Nice speech?”

Or do they rise to their feet and shout, “LET’S MARCH?”

What are you saying about me?

If you’re saying, “Nice speech” I want you to say, “Let’s March!”

If you’re saying, “Let’s March” then let’s march.

The game begins Monday, March 17, 2008 at 4pm eastern U.S. time.

Consistency of communication has not been my strong suit.

It’s not for a lack of something to say.
In the past 30 days, I discovered my gremlin:

I DON’T WANT TO BE AN INTRUSION.
I DON’T WANT TO BE AN UNWELCOME GUEST.

I made it a rule to speak only when I have
something worthwhile to say.

The thing is, every day I discover or uncover something worth sharing.

I hold back because I don’t want to intrude.
I don’t want to be an unwelcome guest.

Holding back cheats you and me.
Do you have the “intrusion” gremlin licked?

Shining a bright light on this gremlin neutralizes his power.

In the past, just the thought of being an unwelcome guest triggered dread in the pit of my stomach and made me want to stay home.

Today, that gremlin has no hold on me.

I have a lot to share and more than a few conversations I want to have with you.

Help me turn my inconsistency into consistency.

Here’s the game plan:

Monday through Thursday
4pm – 4:30pm eastern US time

I host a conversation:

Play the NEW Game™…
Winning in Business, Money and Life!

NEW ways of being, doing and thinking to elevate your game.

* We unleash “NO-Box Thinking”.
* We uncover new solutions to real issues.
* We supply resources and relationships to get you results you want.
* We engage in relevant, meaningful, provocative conversation.
* We invite game changing guests

The game begins Monday, March 17 at 4pm Eastern.

Call: 712-580-1100
Access code: 12288#

Tell your friends.

I welcome your encouragement and participation.

Let’s Play the NEW Game™.
I’ll meet you on the field.

Mitch Axelrod, CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer™)
Host, “Play the NEW Game™”
Changing the Game for 30 Years

JA: Let’s talk about one other area, the difference in small and big businesses. One of your new game mantras is “Love serve and love some more.” That is a very, very different approach with a mantra, especially in this world, you use “love serve, love some more.” Where are we going with this, buddy?

MA: I couldn’t get away with that fifteen years ago. I’d have been laughed out of the offices where I went in.

I’ve seen an evolution. You and I have talked about the science of axiology, the science of human values. A model I developed I call the hierarchy of human interaction. If you look at this one thing right here what I’m going to tell you has changed businesses around completely. The hierarchy is a three dimensional model.

The hierarchy from bottom to top is:

Obey, Serve, and Love. Let me explain.

MA: There are the three levels of human interaction:

The lowest level of human interaction is when you call up a company for service, you want a problem solved and you hear those dreaded words, “I’m sorry, Mr. Assaraf, that’s our policy here. Those are the rules. Those are our procedures.”

Just the words themselves make my skin crawl. That’s the lowest level of human interaction that ninety percent of the businesses out there are playing at meaning they spend more time trying to get the customer to understand why they can’t help the customer because they have their rules.

The policy approach to customer human interaction is the lowest level. Unfortunately, most companies do that. You will transform your business if you just up-level one level to service. Instead of saying, “Sorry, that’s our policy here” say,

“How can I help you? How can I serve you?”

Companies literally transformed their customer service with this question. And this is one of the things that we show companies how to do which has had such an enormous effect.

How do you convert customer service from an expense department into a new business profit center? When somebody comes and calls for service, never, ever put your rules and policies ahead of serving the customer, unless there is some potential legal liability. But if there is anything other than some legal ramifications, always put serving ahead of obeying.

You could stop there and transform your company. But here’s the highest level of human interaction; it is love. It’s the difference of saying to somebody, “How can I serve you?” which is a great thing to do in going through the process and listening to somebody and saying, “You know what, John, I really understand you. I understand how you feel.”

That shift to compassion, empathy, understanding, sympathizing with people, even if you heard that complaint fifty times that day, people will overlook bad service when they feel they are cared about. The thing that has resonated with me and for a lot of people I’ve shared it with, I do what I do for one reason, I play the game for the love of the game.

I believe that The New Game of Business is about playing the game for the love of the game. Why? Because it’s not just business, it’s personal. People love to be cared for. They’ll overlook mistakes. They’ll overlook bad policies. They’ll overlook most anything if you care about them. The insurance industry did a study; they realized that eighty percent of the customers would buy again if one thing happened that’s not happening. You’re not going to believe what it is–if the agent would just show up.

This mantra “love serve and love some more”, is almost like love until it hurts. I’m not saying that this should be a Polly Anna approach. This is a very pragmatic philosophy and strategy of business. People warm up to it. People respond to it because there are so few experiences out there that we have in the course of our lives that we can point to and say, “That person cared about me. That person served me and that person did everything they could and they did it in the spirit of love.” You know when somebody is doing something in the spirit of love and caring and serving as opposed to just doing it because they have to. That’s become one of my new mantras.

JA: It’s interesting because there is evidence when we love a plant, animal, or human, the response is great. One of the hierarchy of human need is love. We beg for it from the time we are born. Without it we become so small, we don’t grow and we don’t mature. I think you’re one hundred percent right, in the game of business we can love our customers. We can show them respect and love and kindness and compassion and in doing that we appeal to a higher sense of humanity. I’ve always believed that.

I was fortunate that my business partners we very, very successful, not just because they were smart businessmen but because they really cared about people and people knew that and everybody wanted to do business with them. To this day everybody wants to do business with them.

I think, by the way, Mitch, you have a book right there with your pyramid, “Love Serve Obey, The New Rules for Business in America.” “Love Serve Obey” with a great tag line underneath, “The New Rules for Business in America.” Huge. Just a thought for you.

MA: Thank you, John. I appreciate it. You know we’re all too close to our own stuff.

JA: It’s so unique. For those of you listening, I hope you don’t mind, there’s a great idea of how do you separate yourself, how do you differentiate yourself? Nobody is doing that in corporate America right now. Guess what, it’s what they need to hear. Every single business from a one-man operation or one-woman operation all the way up, if they follow the Love Serve Obey model, business would transform.

MA: Yes. And you know what? People get hung up on the words, they get hung up on, “Did I say the right thing?” What I try to do with people is say, “Just relax because when you’re coming from Love and Serve, people get it.” And you could make a mistake just to see how people would respond and apologize for the mistake and people will bend over backwards. You’re absolutely right.

And if you buy into the idea that it’s not just business, it’s personal, then love is actually good for business. It would be wonderful if it spread not just in terms of the client, the customer business relationship, but if companies who I believe a lot of major corporations have if companies could start appreciating their human assets as human beings, not just points on a balance sheet, they would never lose anybody. People want to be cared for and they want to be cared about and that’s really got to start from the CEO down.

To start celebrating my 30th business anniversary,
I will share 30 insights over the next 30 days
across a variety of NEW Games.

Beginning today and continuing through February 29,
each day you will get one game-changing play to read,
listen to, or watch that will elevate your game.

On some days like today, tomorrow February 1 and
Saturday February 2, we’ll also have LIVE phone
conversations you can join and we can speak like
humans.

We’ll share skills, models, tools, approaches,
strategies, tactics, inspiration, ways of being,
doing and thinking that have served and profited
me and more than a million people in 30 countries.

On some days like today, you get both LIVE and
“Memorex” (aka, digital for the under 30 crowd).

It’s Not JUST Business…. It’s Personal™!

When I first coined this phrase back in the
20th century, businesses still played by the
old game rules…

“It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”

NEW Game businesses have put this old game
mantra out to pasture. They know,

It’s Not JUST Business…. It’s Personal™!

Why am I doing “30 years in 30 days?”

First, because business is personal to me.
I’ve always taken my business personally.
I’m sure it’s that way for you, too.

Generosity is one of life’s golden values.
I love to give as much REAL value as possible.
Sharing feels good. It’s also good business.

Second, I want you to discover the depth and
breadth of value we have that can improve the
quality of your life and the quantity of your
results. I am very proud of the positive
difference we have contributed to the people
we serve.

Third, my 30th anniversary collection. I am
assembling a lifetime collection we will be
making available. Your experience will help
us make it as player-friendly it can be.

What better way for you to know with absolute
certainty that this collection is worth having
than to experience it in real time? All the hot
marketing pieces, sales copy and testimonials
we can muster will not be as compelling as
you getting 30 real exposures and experiences.

Fourth, I want you to share these nuggets with
others. I ask that you invite friends to receive
this 30-day experience. This expands our ability
to impact more people.

I invite you to send your friends, family and
colleagues to jump into this game.

They can sign up at our VIP page here and get 6 powerful NEW Game audio interviews.

Do you diminish the value of your work and your worth?
Do you hesitate to tell people how good you are?
Do you delay action for fear of what people might think?
Do you fear disapproval if you speak your truth?
Do you think what you think doesn’t really matter?
Do you hold back to avoid confrontation or conflict?
Do you shy away from asking for what you want?
Do you deny yourself because others need it more?
Do you accept less than you deserve?
Do you walk away hungry from the smorgasbord of life?

You and I have some things in common.

Is something burning inside you that if you don’t let
it out, you just might spontaneously combust?

Don’t you want to shout from the rooftops for people
to hear how much good you can do for them?

Don’t you want everyone who can benefit from you
to be able to find you?

Don’t you want to play the best game you can play,
not just go through the motions every day?

Do you want to touch the souls of other human beings?

After 30 years of humble service guided by
Golda’s golden words, I am changing my tune.

My NEW mantra is….

“Don’t be so humble. You ARE that good!”

You have gifts to unwrap and blessings to offer.
You have talents, skills and ideas to enrich the market.
You have energy to supply to those who are depleted.
You have wisdom to share that can soothe someone’s soul.
You have value beyond measure.

You cheat the world every day you withhold these.

The pain of regret cuts deeper than a pinch of ridicule.

Don’t hold back any longer.
It’s time to throw humility to the wind.

Let’s do it together.

Join any or all of these conversations:

—-> Thursday, January 31 at 4pm eastern US time:
FIVE WAYS TO MAKE MORE RAIN, NOW!

P/S ~ We have a few spots left at the deeply discounted investment to be a Rainmaker for Hire™. If you want to be paid very highly to make rain, call us for a 10-minute interview to determine if you are suited to be a Rainmaker for Hire™ at 973-736-1304.

A confluence of forces is conspiring to create a cauldron of critical change.

We are experiencing seismic shifts in the economic, political, ecological, technological, scientific, educational, social, and spiritual dimensions of life. We face humanitarian challenges of the size and scope not faced by any generation before us.

We have created a bit of a mess to clean up on this globe. Clean it up we must, for if we don’t, the stench will stay with us for generations.

Our storehouse of information and knowledge expand more in one year than past generations experienced in a lifetime. Yet, with all we know, we can’t find the wisdom to live together without poverty, hunger and war.

Never before has so much critical change converged at one time on one generation.

If change is your enemy, the road ahead will be rocky.
If change is your friend, you are in for the thrill ride of your life.

The path you choose will shape the future.

Some people say WWII veterans, the Baby Boomer parents, were the greatest generation. To get this planetary ship back on course, let us summon the courage and put forth an effort as great as the greatest generation.

YOU are the most important person on the planet.
You and I form the most powerful team imaginable.

I recently heard Deepak Chopra site a Gallup poll that Nigeria is the #1 country in the world on the “happiness” scale. Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba are near the top.

In happiness, Americans are 16th out of 25 countries surveyed.
In health, Americans are 37th in the world.

How is it that so many of us who live in the “wealthiest” country in the history of humankind are unhappy and unhealthy?

These two quiet epidemics are serious business.

And because what happens in America rumbles through the world like rolling thunder, our challenge is your challenge, wherever on this spinning orb you are reading this.

Is it possible that health and happiness can be inversely related to wealth?

How is it that most of the “happy” people live in countries with lower incomes and standards of living?

Is it possible the cost to win the money game is to sacrifice health and happiness?

America’s “worker satisfaction” numbers say so. An estimated 70% of employed people say they want to leave their jobs. They are:

* Not fulfilled nor challenged.
* Not doing what they like.
* Not earning what they think they are worth.

They are not willing to scale back consumption or downsize their lifestyle to do work that would be more enjoyable but might pay less.

They feel stuck.

This conflict causes major stress. Stress breaks down mind and body, and weakens the immune system. A weakened immune system leads to illness and disease [“dis-ease”].

I am sad when I see someone trudge through life like it’s a sentence to be endured rather than a journey to be enjoyed.

If you live in a modern country with the opportunity to work and improve your lot in life, you are fortunate indeed. If you are doing work you don’t like, you have the free will to choose something different.

There may be a trade off.

You may have to go backwards or sideways to do something you like.

Life is not a straight line.

Success is living the experience and enjoying the journey more than simply reaching the destination.

A GOAL is just another port of call.

Your ROLE deserves more of your attention.

How to direct your energy (attention) and invest your life force (time) are the most important choices you make every day.